


variance

by spacebubble



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Banter, Changelings, Detectives, Ficlet, Gen, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 01:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16507088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebubble/pseuds/spacebubble
Summary: Quark suggests Odo vary his routine a little.





	variance

**Author's Note:**

> just a spur of the moment little ficlet written while listening to Honey on loop.

It didn't start out as a routine.

Odo finds himself walking into Quark's bar again and again. There's always a reason. Whatever lead he's tracking down, whatever witness he's trying to locate, it all traces back to Quark somehow. Quark knows someone. Quark's heard something. Quark's expansive network of underworld contacts infiltrates the entire quadrant, it seems.

The conversations follow a familiar pattern, day in, day out. Odo seeks information, Quark seeks ways to be recompensed for providing it. Soon enough, Odo figures he's visiting the bar so often that he might as well make it a recurring event. 

It doesn't strike him that it's actually a routine until Quark complains about the monotony of it. 

" _Monotony_?" Odo asks. 

They're at the bar, as usual, and he's standing across the counter from Quark, as usual.

Quark gesticulates at Odo's general vicinity, exasperated. "Every day, Odo. You just... _stand_ there at me! I mean, can't you at least practice sitting? You always take the same number of steps to walk over here from the door -"

"How many steps?"

"Twelve, unless you're making a detour to avoid bumping into someone, though I'm sure they'd get out of your way if you didn't."

"And you count how many steps I take each day?"

"I don't _have_ to each day, because it never changes. Do you know how boring it gets, listening to your footsteps all the time?"

Odo scoffs. "I don't walk to entertain you, Quark."

Quark scoffs back. " _Obviously_."

"So what do you suggest I do instead?" Odo's somewhat aware this is completely irrelevant to his actual reason for being in the bar, which is to ask Quark what he knows about the missing Legate whose last transaction occurred at yesterday's happy hour, but his curiosity's been piqued.

"I don't know! Just something else." Quark nods over at one of the barstools in front of the counter. "You can practice sitting or something."

"Sitting?" Odo grunts in annoyance. "I _know_ how to sit, Quark."

"Could've fooled me." Quark grins. "Besides, it strains my neck looking up at you all the time. If you sit, we're almost at the same level."

"At eye level," Odo corrects.

"Same difference." Quark shrugs. "Might even help you blend in more. People don't usually stand up all the time. Their legs get tired."

"My legs _don't_ get tired."

"I know, but you could pretend like they do, since you're pretending to be a Bajoran anyway."

Odo frowns. "But I _am_ a Bajoran."

"Hey, keep it down, your Cardassian coworkers might hear you," Quark jokes. When Odo stares at him in silence, he shakes his head at himself. "I mean physically. Because you can transform into whatever, but you choose to look like a Bajoran, instead of, I don't know, a Cardassian."

Odo eyes him. "Do you want me to look more like a Cardassian?"

At that, Quark makes a face. "No. Don't think I do. Wouldn't really seem like... you, I suppose."

Odo grunts in agreement.

"Anyway," Quark wraps up, "why don't you try sitting once in a while? Just to shake things up a little."

Odo nods over at the end of the counter, where the Lurian named Morn has been attentively pretending not to listen to their conversation. "Why don't you ask Morn to shake things up a little?"

"You know his name now!" Quark says in genuine delight. Morn also seems pleased, though he modestly doesn't vocalize this pleasure aloud.

"I don't forget names once I've learned them." Odo tilts his head. "Morn also has a routine here. Why don't you chastise him for not varying his position?"

"Because he's my best customer," Quark replies chipperly. "And because Morn's always finding little ways to surprise me."

"Really."

"Really!" 

Well, he's not about to be bested by the local lush, of all people. Odo picks the barstool nearest Quark and sits himself down. For variety's sake, Odo leans an elbow onto the counter, effortlessly and perfectly resembling the Glinn who was chatting away with Quark yesterday.

Quark blinks. "Elbow on the counter already? Thought it might take another week to get you to stop folding your arms all the time."

Odo finds this genuinely amusing. "You'll never 'get me' to do anything, Quark." 

The laugh he gets in response is actually quite nice. A pleasant contrast to the more sarcastic or mean-spirited laughs he typically hears. 

"Wanna bet on it?" Quark asks, smiling like he does with any other patron, and Odo almost smiles back before he remembers he has a job to do.

"I don't have time for such foolish diversions, Quark. Now, about that missing Legate..."


End file.
